My name is Breanna (sounds like "BanANa" 🍌), but I also go by Bree. I am a career changer with 10+ years of experience in education, design, and communications, now applying that interdisciplinary expertise to software engineering. Actively building technical expertise in AI, high-performance computing, and scientific data analysis. Experienced in public speaking, event organizing, and cross-sector collaboration. Adept at leading discussions, mentoring peers, and translating complex technical topics for diverse audiences. Seeking to contribute to an organization advancing climate tech and reducing environmental impact.
Check out these great articles about me or my projects!
- Students collaborate to ‘Save the World’
- Getting the most out of the graduate experience
- Success a product of growth and collaboration
- GHC 2023 student scholarships instill confidence and inspire
- Researching security and privacy for ‘smart’ cities
Take a look at these LinkedIn posts!
- Alliance 4 Sustainability Clamor Article
- "UWB Hacks: Save the World!" Leadership
- Los Alamos National Lab Parallel Computing Summer Internship
More Links!
- Browse my Link Tree
- 📫 Contact Me: Breanna Powell | LinkedIn
University of Washington Bothell. Expected: August 2025
Coursework: Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Cybersecurity and AI, Cybersecurity in Emerging Environments, Internet of Things, Mobile Computing, High Performance Computing, Multimedia Database Systems, Human Factors in Cybersecurity, Knowledge Management Systems
University of Washington Bothell. June 2022
Coursework: Object-Oriented Programming, Software Development Processes, Systems Programming, Software Testing and Quality, Software Modeling
Central Washington University. June 2010
January 2025 – Present
- Using a Transformer from PyTorch, Podman-HPC for reproducibility; Cartopy for visualization
- Pretraining with data from the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) with PyTorch Dataset + Data Loader
June 2023 – November 2023
- Developed a framework to conduct experiments with Wi-Fi sensors for anonymous crowd flow tracking
- Utilized Python, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet, PostgreSQL database, pgAdmin, and JavaScript libraries
- Note: The code repository for this is private in GitLab
November 2023 – December 2023
- Employed Python, Scikit-Learn, and Librosa to engineer a machine learning pipeline that extracts raw data from audio clips, processes that data, and uses an SVM classifier to identify if they are music or speech
March 2023 – March 2023
- Extracted raw emails from gmail with imaplib; parsed body text; examined feature importance with Principal Component Analysis; built a sequential Keras model with callbacks for early stopping; performed a hyperparameter search and saved the model with the best precision to reduce false positives
Lead Designer @ Illumination Arts Publishing. November 2014 to Present
Grader @ University of Washington Bothell. March 2025 - June 2025
Parallel Programming Intern @ Los Alamos National Laboratory. June 2024 - Aug 2024
Graduate Teaching Assistant @ University of Washington Bothell. September 2023 – June 2024
Theme Reader (District-Wide Assessment Grader) @ Tahoma School District. September 2016 – August 2023
Paraeducator @ Tahoma School District. September 2014 – August 2022
Green Team Coach @ Tahoma School District. September 2015 – August 2021
Robotics Coach @ Tahoma School District. September 2015 – August 2019
June 2025 - July 2025
April 2024 - November 2024
- Served as Lead Student Volunteer for the Communications Team for SC24 & Sustainability Guided Interest Group
- Check out "GIG 4: Increasing the Sustainability of HPC "
- Communications work: https://sc24.supercomputing.org/author/breanna-powell/
November 2023
- Volunteered for multiple shifts; participated in the Sustainability Guided Interest Group in High Performance Computing (HPC)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Chapter at UW Bothell
September 2021 – August 2025
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Planned large events of 600+ students by running committees of 3-15 undergraduate and graduate students:
- UWB Hacks: Save the World ('25), UWB Hacks AI (‘24), UWB Hacks In Person (‘23), UWB Hacks the Cloud (‘22)
- Increased participation in the UWB Hackathon from 66 to 621 students in 4 years, by coordinating 56 class visits, 150+ emails, and 70+ marketing strategies, reaching 11+ campuses, 15+ departments in 2025
- Grew UWB Hacks LinkedIn followers from 0 to 280+ in 4 months
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Hosted small events of 6-40 students, 5-10 nights per quarter
- ACM Reads: A Quick-Reads, Tech-Focused Discussion Group, discussing computer science topics, including local and global STEM research
- Machine Learning Contest Series, covering machine learning basics for beginners, encouraging team formation and contest submission
- Professional Photoshoot, in collaboration with UW Bothell Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS)
- Mock Technical Interviews, in collaboration with Career Services
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Engaged 100+ industry partners, securing their involvement as judges or speakers for specialized topics
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Led cross-collaboration between UWB ACM and 16+ other student clubs and organizations
Alliance 4 Sustainability (A4S) Club at UW Bothell
February 2023 – August 2025
- Represented the CS department and the Alliance 4 Sustainability in a roundtable with Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State
- Facilitated cross-department collaboration by boosting Sustainability Office and campus activities
- Tabled for A4S at the Fall and Winter Club Fairs, Admitted Students’ Day, and Earth Month Fair
- Boosted club productivity by formulating 5+ new event ideas and plans, such as facility tours, campus walks, and campus forum